Lesley Jo Weaver, Ph.D., MPH

Dr. Lesley Jo Weaver, who prefers to go by Jo, is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama. She holds a Ph.D. in medical anthropology and an MPH in global health from Emory University. “I had spent a lot of time in India,” says Dr. Weaver when asked how she first became interested in the topic of diabetes, “and the sheer prevalence of type 2 diabetes there made it an almost unavoidable topic of conversation. It seemed to me to be an illness that was on everyone's minds, and yet very little medical anthropology work had addressed chronic diseases in low-income countries.” “The central question motivating my work is: How do the everyday realities of lifestyle, nutrition, and social structure shape people's health, and vice-versa, around the world?” To answer this question, Dr. Weaver has worked for over a decade in India, and has recently begun working in rural Amazonia, Brazil. In New Delhi, India, Dr. Weaver studies the relationships between type 2 diabetes, women's gendered social roles, and their mental health. This ongoing project has engaged over 400 women to date. In Brazil, Dr. Weaver started an ongoing research project in rural Para state, that explores the cultural value of local and imported foods, how food insecurity shapes people's access to those foods, and how those factors shape physical and mental health. “In general,” says Dr. Weaver, “my research uses a biocultural approach that includes ethnography, questionnaires, blood biomarkers, and anthropometrics.”Dr. Weaver’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, The Fulbright Hays Foundation, the Center for Health, Culture, and Society at Emory University, the Society for Psychological Anthropology, and the American Institute of Indian Studies. Dr. Weaver also speaks Hindi and Brazilian Portuguese.DiET would like to thank Dr. Lesley Weaver for her continued research in the fields of diabetes, nutrition, lifestyle, and community health. She is also a member of DiET’s Board of Advisors. DiET pinned Dr. Weaver as part of the International Diabetes Federation’s “Pin a Personality” campaign, and as a way to thank her and shine a light on all that she does. Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from her pinning as well as other information at www.alabamadiet.org under the WDD 2015 tab, and be sure to take a look Dr. Weaver’s website at http://ljweaver.people.ua.edu/​